Funding is requested to support graduate student and postdoctoral trainees at the 2012 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference, which is held jointly with the Nuclear Science Symposium. This annual international conference is the largest and most important meeting dedicated to radiotracer based medical imaging methods, particularly positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Additional topics of interest include multimodality imaging such as PET/CT and PET/MR. The emphasis is on detectors, imaging systems and algorithms for image reconstruction and image quantitation. At the most recent meeting in 2010 in Knoxville, 604 papers were presented within the Medical Image Conference and total attendance was 1985 with at least half of the attendees declaring the Medical Imaging Conference to be their primary interest. This grant will provide twenty graduate students and post doctoral trainees with $500 each towards conference registration and accommodations. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will provide financial assistance to twenty graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to attend the 2012 IEEE Medical Imaging Conference. This will advance the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers in the field, allowing them to refine and develop new methods for medical imaging. These methods will in turn alllow for better diagnosis and monitoring of disease and thereby improve public health.